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By Joe Wilcox, 4 November 2002 07:00

NEWS Microsoft's long-running stateside anti-trust case appears to be over, with the US federal judge in charge accepting the proposed settlement on Friday. US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said sanctions against the software giant are to last five years unless extended by the court. Kollar-Kotelly wrote: "The court is satisfied that the parties have reached a settlement which comports with the public interest." The settlement is "conditionally approved as the final judgment in this case," the judge wrote. The settling parties have until 8 November to refile the settlement with changes requested by the judge. The judge approved the settlement almost wholesale, basically rejecting a call by nine nonsettling states and the District of Columbia for stiffer sanctions. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, one of the plaintiff states' leaders, referred to the decision as the "latest chapter" in the case, but would not comment on whether the plaintiff states would appeal the judge's decision. "We have to analyse the decision and talk to our colleagues" first, he said. Kollar-Kotelly did call for some changes, requiring Microsoft to disclose communications protocols in Windows six months earlier than the company or the DoJ had specified in their joint proposal. Kollar-Kotelly also modified the oversight of Microsoft's compliance with the settlement. Originally, the proposal included a technical committee and an internal compliance officer, both potentially influenced by Microsoft. In Friday's ruling, the judge combined the two into a compliance committee made up of Microsoft board members. In turn, the committee must hire a compliance officer, to report to the committee and to Microsoft's CEO. As corporate officers and non-Microsoft employees, the compliance committee in theory would be more likely to appropriately enforce the settlement in this era of renewed corporate responsibility. Microsoft said in a statement: "We are pleased that the court has conditionally approved the settlement we reached with the federal government and the nine states. The settlement is a tough, but fair, compromise. It imposes significant requirements on Microsoft, but it enables us to continue to innovate and to create products that address the changing needs of our customers. We recognize that we will be closely scrutinized by the government and our competitors, and we will devote all the time, energy and resources needed to ensure that we meet our responsibilities." Joe Wilcox writes for News.com